University of Houston Athletics
Burke Takes Bronze at U20 World Championships
7/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
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Bydgoszcz, Poland -- Freshman sprinter Mario Burke claimed the first medal for his home country Barbados in U20 World Championship history as he took bronze in the 100-meter dash at the IAAF World U20 Championships on Wednesday.
Burke qualified for the semifinal round Tuesday, when he ran the sixth fastest time overall at 10.34, before following that performance with the same time in the semifinals to finish second in the heat and qualify fifth overall for the finals.
Just two hours later, Burke was back on the track, running in lane eight of the straight-track event. The Bridgetown native crossed the line in 10.26 to finish third overall and claim the first U20 Championship medal in Barbados history.
Burke will be back on the track Thursday in the 200-meters, where he enters ranked 14th among competitors with a best of 20.87. Burke's fastest time in the event this season came at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships where he finished third. The semifinals for the 200 will follow at 11:30 a.m., Thursday, with the finals the following day at 2:30 p.m.
Freshman Amere Lattin began his world championships in impressive fashion while running the 110-meter hurdles. Lattin won heat four of the hurdles in 13.46 to qualify for the semifinals with the second-fastest overall time. Hours later, Lattin punched his ticket to the finals when he finished second in heat 3 of the semis, crossing the line in 13.39 to qualify third overall. The finals of the 110 hurdles will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday.
Signee Nathaniel Mechler wrapped up the second day of the decathlon with the final five events on Wednesday. After a tough break saw Mechler disqualified from the 400-meters on Tuesday, he was out of contention for the championship but still put on an impressive performance in day two. The Team Canada member finished the day with three top-10 finishes, including placing third in the 1,500m (4:23.81), seventh in the 110-meter hurdles (14.42) and ninth in the pole vault (4.50m).
Cougar women's signee Cecilia Tamayo competed in her first of two events for Team Mexico on Wednesday, when she ran in the 100-meter dash. Tamayo crossed the line in 11.85 to finish 27th overall. She will be in action again at 5 a.m., Thursday for the first round of the women's 200-meter dash, where she enters ranked No. 30 among all competitors.
Samiyah Samuels will be in action for Team USA at 2:40 a.m., Thursday for the first round of the women's long jump. Samuels enters with a personal best of 21-3.25 (6.48m), which set the meet and stadium (The Armory; New York, N.Y.) high school records at the 2016 New Balance Indoor Nationals on March 12. Her mark is tied for third among competitors in the event and is just one one-hundredth of a meter off the top mark. The finals of the long jump will be held at 12:25 p.m., Friday.
Future Cougar vaulter Klara Mattson will compete in the finals of the women's pole vault at 11:25 a.m., Thursday. On Tuesday Mattson, tied her personal best mark of 13-7.25 (4.15m) to earn the 12th and final qualifying position, while competing for Team Sweden. Mattson matched the height of nine other vaulters in the competition, but cleared on her final attempt, while others cleared on earlier attempts.
Brian Bell will be the final Cougar on the track as he represents Team USA in the first round of the 800-meters at 3:25 a.m., Friday. The school record holder in each of the indoor and outdoor 800 set his top mark of 1:47.17 at the USATF Junior Championships in June and is ranked No. 11 in the event. The 800 will span three days, with the semifinals running at 10:45 p.m., Saturday and the finals at 10:10 a.m., Sunday.
In total, 1,512 athletes will represent 157 different countries at the IAAF World U20 Championships with each athlete qualifying by meeting a minimum mark in their respective events and being one of the top-2 under-20 athletes in their country.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
Live results of the 2016 IAAF U20 Championships will be made available courtesy of the organizations home website IAAF.org. Results can be found be visiting the website and following the appropriate links to the results, or by clicking HERE.
The IAAF will also hold a live radio broadcast of the World U20 Championships, covering the afternoon sessions of each day. The live broadcast can be found by clicking HERE. The broadcast schedule is as follows:
Thursday, July 21 -- 11 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
Friday, July 22 -- 11 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
Saturday, July 23 -- 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Sunday, July 24 -- 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
NATIONALLY RANKED SIGNING CLASS
The Cougars made noise throughout the entire offseason when the men's signing class was ranked as the No. 2 class in the nation by Flotrack last July. The current freshmen on campus are led by three incoming student-athletes on the MileSplit All-American team. Marcus McWilliams (110m hurdles), Gerald Mills (200m) and John Lewis III (100m) all earned All-America honors, while distance runner Jahnavi Schneider was named as the No. 3 cross country recruit in the state of Texas by TxRunning.com.
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Players Mentioned
